Influential Designers: Day 4

On Wednesday May 13, we had our second to last day of influential designer presentations. We learned about Stephen Stagmeister, Clement Mok, and Leo Burnett.

Stephen Stagmeister was for sure a very unique and unconventional designer. I enjoyed hearing about him and his work very much. He was born in Austria and studied in New York. He worked with Leo Burnett and Tibor Kalman, who was his greatest influence. He appreciated Tibor's typographic style and the support he gave social issues, as well as things he believed in. Stephen did a lot of handwritten work and photography. He liked using the human body a lot in his images because it's familiar and relateable. One of the most interesting ways he used the human body was in an image of his own body where his intern cut words into his skin. Most of his works were for music groups or for social issues like the True Majority Initiative.

Clement Mok started out working for Apple and designing software for the Mackintosh computer. The skills he acquired there helped him in his own business later on where he had the capabilities to meet any need a client may have, including web design. He did a lot of idenity systems for companies like Adobe, IBM, and Sony. He work sometimes has an Art Deco feel to it, but is mostly freehand and drawings. It's geometric and bold and he likes to use symbolism and abstract images.

Leo Burnett was an advertising executive that was responsible for many of the cereal box characters that we grew up with, like Tony the tiger and Tucan Sam. He had started out working for Cadillac Motors, but joined the ad industry later on. In 1935 he opened up his own company in Chicago. He got some criticism and some people told him he'd never do well, but he did and proved them wrong. His personal logos are based off of what he believes and how people told him that he would fail and wind up selling apples in the streets. They are an apple, for obvious reasons, a hand reaching for stars, for his famous quote about reaching for them even if what you get isn't a star, and a black pencil to represent humanity and hard work.